Remember
by Desperatembrace
Summary: Young Grimmjow keeps running into the strange orange haired child, wondering how exactly such a child could claim to see ghosts with such a straight face. Fate seems to enjoy having them cross paths multiple times. AU, fluff, Grimmichi, shonen-ai


I've had this idea in my head for the longest time. But I couldn't really think up a good plot behind it, so I was like, "Hey. Why don't I just make it a majorly cute oneshot?" And thus, the oneshot was born. Yeah, I know that I promised E&S oneshots, but... I wanted a bit of change of scenery. And story. Enjoy.

Started and completed on August 13th.

**Authoress: **Desperatembrace

**Disclaimer(s): **I do not own Bleach. I wish I did, but alas, it still belongs to Kubo-sensei.

**Warning: **Fluff, AU, Shonen-ai

**-Remember-**

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"I see dead people."

It was a sentence said with the utmost seriousness, absolutely no traces of joking or lying present in his tone. He stood in a stance that exuded a relaxed atmosphere, as if he had never claimed that he could see the souls of the dearly departed.

At this point, young Grimmjow was thoroughly confused. How could a child of merely five years old say something so ridiculous with such a straight face? Either this child was an excellent liar or he had a few screws loose in the head. He brushed a hand through his hair with a small frown, glaring the kid in his little brown eyes.

"I don't like it when people lie to me. Don't lie," he replied, ending the statement with a light sneer. The orange haired child's eyes glazed over for a moment before he glanced away. There was a moment of silence before he released a quiet, almost unheard sigh. "It's okay. 's not your fault," he said, his words a little clumsy. He turned back to Grimmjow. "Nobody ever b'lieves me. So 's not your fault."

The child bowed his head slightly, sniffling. Rubbing away stinging tears, the small first grader shook his head and took a step back before sending Grimmjow a small smile and waving. At that last motion, the kid turned around and left, leaving the blue haired lad alone in the chilly park.

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The next time Grimmjow saw the kid was nearly half a year later, on a street nearby their previous meeting point. The young boy was crouched next to a telephone pole, straightening up a single daisy in its perch inside of a water-filled milk bottle. The orange haired child sat back on his haunches, staring at the lonely flower for a moment before looking up at the pole at something that only he could see. He offered a small smile, his mouth moving to hushed words as he spoke to the air around him.

Grimmjow never really could figure out what exactly possessed him to walk up to the strange child, much less start up a conversation. He later reasoned it out as a kind of pull, something that just drew him the the young kid.

The blue haired kid marched up to the boy, making sure that he heard his approach over the loud cicadas calling through the hot summer day. When brown eyes turned on him, he sucked in a heavy breath and forced himself to speak. "What are you doing?"

The orange haired lad blinked before glancing at the daisy and saying quietly, "I'm giving her a present. It must be sad to be all by herself..." At this, Grimmjow could only assume that he was speaking of a ghost. He still remembered the last time that he had run into the child. It was such a simple meeting, but had oddly left quite an impact on him. He furrowed his brows in confusion. The child was still pretending about ghosts...?

He frowned before deciding to take a different approach. Remembering how the child had seemed sad about his disbelief the last time, he asked, "If you don't like it when people don't believe you, then why do you go around telling people that you can see ghosts?" It was only obvious that nobody would believe that a child could see long-gone souls.

Where he had expected the boy to frown, he instead smiled, his lips stretching clear across his cheeks in a picture of innocence. "The only one who b'lieved me was Mommy. But Mommy died a long time ago. Mommy said that if I can find someone to b'lieve me, then I would be happy and be with them. I wanna find someone to b'lieve me."

Grimmjow frowned slightly, tilting his head a bit. Maybe the kid wasn't lying. He probably just had a few mental problems...

Seeing the look that the older boy gave him, the child shied away, casting his eyes to the ground. He stayed quiet before glancing up and giving him a sad smile along with a wave, a mirror of what he had done as he left the year before. He turned around and ran away, turning the corner and disappearing out of sight.

Blinking at the abrupt and silent exit, Grimmjow stood still for a few moments. After finally regaining his bearings, the eleven year old glanced at the lonely daisy, frowning slightly. He had heard about someone passing away in an accident somewhere in this area lately...

He quickly jogged over to a nearby patch of grass, gazing around at the green blades hopefully. When his eyes landed on what he had been looking for, a rare smile graced his lips.

When Grimmjow left to go home that night, the daisy was no longer alone.

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After yet another year or so of seeing no signs of the child, Grimmjow unexpectedly ran into him on the way home from middle school. It was the same park that he had first met him. He had chanced a glance across the hedges only to freeze when he spied a head full of orange hair. After little debate, he headed down the path toward the boy, the snow crunching underneath his sneakers.

Taking a seat on the edge of the simplistic merry-go-round, Grimmjow sat quietly as the young boy next to him stared off across the park. He dropped his feet onto the snowy ground and pushed lightly, enjoying how the octagonal hunk of metal slowly began to spin. The only thing that the two small boys heard was the quiet squeak of metal. Quickly getting tired of the silence, he blew out a heavy sigh and glanced at the young boy beside him. After a few seconds of contemplation he said, "My name is Grimmjow."

Finally, the orange haired boy turned slightly, looking him in the face. Big brown eyes regarded him curiously for a moment before he said, "I'm Ichi." He quickly sealed his mouth shut once more, going back to his staring contest with the snow. Having descended back into silence once more, Grimmjow became fidgety, shifting in place anxiously.

Without thinking about his words, the blue haired boy quickly blurted out, "I believe you!" Young Ichi jumped slightly, turning wide eyes back to the older boy. Grimmjow cleared his throat slightly, embarrassed at his outburst. "I mean... I believe you... about the ghosts..." He clarified, trailing off uncertainly.

Ichi stared at him with wide eyes, innocence shining through their curious brown depths and a smile bloomed on his face. He felt as if he was just now seeing the young boy, nose pink and lips chapped from the cold. Caught in a kind of trance, the pre-teen just stared at the child, frozen in place. Before he even had time to react, Ichi had leaned forward and given him a chaste kiss on the lips, pulling back with a delighted smile.

"Thank you. I'm happy." The orange haired kid pushed himself off of the merry-go-round, the playground equipment already having halted in its spinning. He leaned down and brushed off imaginary snow from his pants before turning his full smile back onto the speechless Grimmjow. Slapping his hands to his cheeks lightly and rubbing for heat, Ichi turned around and began to walk away. He paused at the hedges at the entrance of the park and looked over his shoulder, his wide, bright smile still plastered on his lips.

"I'll see you around, Grimm." With one last wave, the child disappeared, leaving Grimmjow alone in the quiet cold of the park.

Things became really busy for the blue haired kid that week, school work picking up to an unimaginable pace. Halfway through the week, Grimmjow was told by his parents they were moving a few cities over in a couple of days. As he watched the scenery pass by, one particular scene being that of the park, he couldn't help but feel sad that he wasn't going to see young Ichi ever again.

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The automatic doors slid open for Grimmjow, giving him entrance to the prominent building. He stretched slightly, heavily annoyed at being called into a business meeting. Such was the woes of a young genius, having made it nearly to the top of the company in under 3 years--now a vice president at the young age of 28.

He was supposed to be the prime negotiator between a company that had just signed a contract for a merging into his own company. The smaller corporation was sending 3 of its finest workers and Grimmjow was called in along with 2 of his coworkers to work out benefits and clarify who works on what.

Grimmjow stepped into the lobby to see the familiar figures of Szayel Aporro and Ulquiorra Cifer. The two stood up at his entrance and trailed along after him to the elevator. The three stepped in and waited for the mechanism to arrive at their floor. Never being one for silence, Szayel began to chatter about the upcoming meeting.

"I heard the other company is sending their rookies, too." Grimmjow stayed silent, not offering any sort of reaction to the information. Ulquiorra remained the same. He flipped his pink hair, undeterred by the lack of a reply. "Apparently one of their rookies is a famous trouble-maker. I don't remember his name, but apparently he used to get into fights all the time. Claimed he could see dead people, too."

Somehow, the statement stirred something in Grimmjow's memory, the faint nonexistent feeling of snow touching his senses. He felt chills run up his spine and suddenly his limbs felt heavy with nostalgia. He pushed the feeling back when the elevator doors opened with a ding, stepping forward and leading the way to their meeting room.

They quickly settled into the room, two other people occupying seats at the far end of the table. The women hurriedly introduced themselves as Kuchiki Rukia and Inoue Orihime, hastily apologizing for the lack of their third negotiator. The meeting went by without a hitch, the deal quickly being decided and done with. An open and shut case.

It was decided that the link between the two companies would be Grimmjow along with their missing companion, a man by the name of Kurosaki. All transactions would be made through the two, thus making them partners.

Grimmjow himself rather disliked the idea. He didn't work with partners. He was a solo kind of guy. He did his own work, he did it quickly, and he liked it that way. The fact that he would have to run things by someone else (who wouldn't even show up to such an important meeting) was absolutely ridiculous and time consuming. How could the other man not even show up, anyway? How could he be so arrogant as to miss out on such an important meeting?

The five had decided it was time to split up and made their way to the door only to pause mere feet away from the portal as it slammed open.

"Sorry I'm late. I was saying my goodbyes and there was a bit of trouble..." The man was leaning down, supporting himself on his knees as he struggled to catch his breath. Grimmjow almost snorted. Saying goodbyes? To his ghost friends? How could someone say something so ridiculous with such a straight-forward tone? Another wave of nostalgia tore through the blue haired man.

When the man had stood back up straight, Grimmjow's view was blocked as the two women stepped forward to berate him. After smacking him upside the head (the black haired woman a bit more violently), the two women took their leave. Ulquiorra gave a short nod to the man as Aporro stepped forward and introduced himself, giving a firm handshake.

The pink haired man pulled away and turned to Grimmjow, raising a hand as if he were showing off a beautiful trophy case. "And this is Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, your new business partner." Grimmjow quickly looked up at his name, his eyes locking onto deep chocolate brown across from him. Kurosaki blinked before a wide smile stretched across his face. He held a hand out, his other hand carding through his bright orange hair in an embarrassed motion.

Firmly taking hold of his hand, Grimmjow's brows furrowed in concentration. The feeling of nostalgia was simply multiplying at this point. The man's grin grew even larger as he said, "My name is Kurosaki Ichigo, your new business partner. I have a bad habit of picking fights and I can see dead people. Some friends call me Ichi." His eyes were practically shining with amusement.

And it all clicked. Maybe having a partner wouldn't be too bad after all.

**-Have you remembered?-**

A/N: Egads! I wrote fluff? Me? I just hope it actually turned out okay... I've never really done the cutesy little kid style of writing... And I wanted to try the kind of 'vague' approach to writing. And yes, I know I made Grimm a business man again. After writing him as such in E&S I can hardly imagine him otherwise. Haha. XD

Isn't mini Grimmichi (Shonen-ai style) just adorable?

Review?


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